I think it’s great the WoW team is listening (finally!) to feedback from the playerbase for Dragonflight. I’m excited for many of the new features, such as the new flying system, new class, and new talent system especially.
But I think it’s also important not to forget about some of the smaller but still very important issues with Shadowlands because they are fundamental windows into how the team designs the game.
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Everyone talks about Covenants and the abilities being messy and poorly implemented.
But it overshadows some smaller failures like for example, why did Blizzard think it was a good idea to make you grind forever to unlock a portal to Oribos for your Covenant Sanctum, only to then make the portal only 1 way?
Why do they remove crucial storyline quests from previous patches everytime a new patch comes out? Well, to subtly incentivize players to not miss out and sub for every patch. They removed the rescue Anduin/Jaina/Thrall Torghast quests which explain how Anduin got corrupted/controlled by the Jailer when 9.1 came out, leaving many returning players who didn’t play 9.0 very confused about the storyline. They did this again in 9.2 with many other quests.
In 9.2.5 the game just straight up spoils the Jailer’s defeat in ZM for you before you even get a chance to do the raid.
Blizzard is subtly but not so subtly telling you you better sub when things are perfectly current or else you’re missing out, buddy. So you better fork over the money.
These are just a few examples out of many.
To keep it brief but naming more:
-Why were so many arbitrary limitations placed on the covenant special feature? Only 1 ember court a week? Seriously?
-Zereth Mortis needed it’s own flying unlock.
Just make flying something you buy at max level with gold again. I’m glad they made it easier but there shouldn’t be a required achievement period.
-The story writing for the expansion wasn’t very immersive and felt awkward. Most people don’t play for the story anymore, but that could change. In the past, most people played WoW because of interest in the lore, not because they wanted to play an MMO. That’s why people lined up at 2am for WOTLK. They wanted to find out what happens next with Arthas.
Does anyone care at all what happens next with the Jailer or any character from Shadowlands? Maybe a small handful, but that’s it.
-Much more little things here to name.
Honestly with most of these other than the writing it seems like they want to force you to play the game at an arbitrarily slower pace to milk your money and that’s what’s causing all the issues.
Please include any examples yourself of small things that are generally not focused on much by the community but you feel need to be paid attention to because they are still important for the health/enjoyment of the game.